Four more rape cases, attack on women reported in UP

As many as four rapes, including one in which a woman was burnt alive, were reported from different parts of Uttar Pradesh on Monday, a day after an attack on a minor girl whose eyes were gouged by a gang when she resisted rape.

As many as four rapes, including one in which a woman was burnt alive, were reported from different parts of Uttar Pradesh on Monday, a day after an attack on a minor girl whose eyes were gouged by a gang when she resisted rape.

Also, a man was allegedly lynched by a crowd after he tried to physically abuse a married woman.

Two of the four rape cases involved minor girls.

According to state special director general of Police Brij Lal, "the cases of rape and attack were reported from Etah, Gonda, Firozabad, Kanpur and Farrukhabad."

A 35-year-old married woman was allegedly gang-raped and burnt alive in Sabapur village in Etah, about 250 km from Lucknow, the official said.

According to the police, she was sleeping in her hut with her two children when five men attacked her. Realising that the woman had recognised them, the men doused her with kerosene and burnt her alive in front of her children, police said.

She was declared brought dead at the district hospital.

Her brother Anil alleged that there were attempts to delay the registration of the case and that the police finally reported it only after TV channels came out with the story.

Etah Superintendent of Police Laxmi Narain later suspended the station officer and two constables.

In the second incident, the body of a 13-year-old girl was found in a decomposed condition Monday morning in a sugarcane field in Katheli village of Gonda district, about 130 km from Lucknow.

Police said the girl, missing from home for three days, was kidnapped, raped and killed by three men.

Two suspects have been arrested and one is on the run, Brij Lal said.

Another minor girl of 14 years was sexually assaulted by two young boys in Mian Nagar village of Firozabad district, about 400 km from here. Police arrested one boy while the other is absconding.

The fourth rape case took place in Colonelganj locality of Kanpur, about 82 km from here, in which a teenager was allegedly kidnapped and kept in confinement in a hotel where she was repeatedly raped for three days.

While the police said she went there willingly, the girl said in her complaint that she was taken there by force by three boys after she got separated from her brother at the crowded Kanpur railway station.

A man was lynched by a mob Sunday night in Farrukhabad after he allegedly tried to molest a newly married woman while the couple were returning from an event. The woman was seriously wounded when one of the attackers fired his gun at the couple.

Two men, Rajiv Yadav and Rajendra Yadav, made obscene overtures to the woman. When her husband resisted them, Rajendra fired at the couple, wounding the woman, the police official said.

When the husband retaliated, the crowd collected around them and lynched Rajendra, Brij Lal said. Rajiv Yadav is absconding.

In yet another incident, a man who was let off in a rape case Sunday night fired at the uncle of the victim in Dhukani village in Baghpat district, the official said.

The 16-year-old Dalit girl was raped in May. One man was arrested in the case and the police was ordered to give protection to the girl's family.

According to Brij Lal, three policemen have been suspended for failing to protect the family.

In a case that evoked widespread anger against the state government, a minor girl was blinded by two high school students in Kannauj district when she resisted their rape attempt Saturday. The 14-year-old Dalit girl is now undergoing treatment in Kanpur Medical College Hospital.